Families of Pickton victims 'offended to the very core' about limits on inquiry: lawyer

Families of Robert Pickton victims 'offended to the very core' about limits on inquiry: lawyer

VANCOUVER — The Missing Women inquiry is a “fiasco” because it is rushing through witnesses and limiting cross-examination of important Vancouver police witnesses, the lawyer for 25 families of murdered and missing women said Wednesday.

“I can tell you my clients are offended to the very core about the government’s limits on this inquiry, which is affecting my mandate,” Ward said.

“This process is supposed to be thorough,” he added, “But it’s become a fiasco because of the time limits.”

‘That’s why we’re here, to examine all the reasons, which are many’

Ward was responding to Oppal cutting off the cross-examination of Jason Gratl, who is representing Downtown Eastside interests at the inquiry, when he reached his one-hour time limit imposed by the inquiry on his cross-examination of three retired senior Vancouver police officers — former Sgt. Geramy Field, whose last name now is Powell, and former inspectors Fred Biddlecombe and Dan Dureau.

Ward complained that he only had an hour to cross-examine the three witnesses, who collectively spent 15 years on the investigations of the missing women case.

The inquiry is probing why police didn’t catch Robert Pickton until February 2002, despite Vancouver police receiving tips in 1998 about Pickton being a possible serial killer who was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women.

Oppal responded by saying: “Cross-examination has to be fair, not endless.”

He said the time limits imposed by the inquiry of the three witnesses adds up to nine hours of cross-examination.

“Let’s get on with it,” Oppal told the lawyers.

Powell, who was the first female sergeant in the homicide section and was the supervisor of the detectives working in the Missing Persons unit, testified Wednesday that she never experienced any sexism in the workplace.

She said a few immature people made stupid comments over the years, but she did not experience overt sexism within the Vancouver Police Department.

Ward pointed out that three Vancouver police employees, including two retired civilian employees, Sandy Cameron and Rae-Lynn Dicks, testified they experienced a sexist and racist “old boys culture” at the VPD, which affected the missing women investigation.

“That’s why we’re here, to examine all the reasons, which are many,” Powell said.

She blamed the slow communication between the Vancouver police, the RCMP, and Unsolved Homicide Unit for the lack of manpower devoted to the case.

She cited an August 1999 interview done by two Unsolved Homicide Unit detectives of Lynn Ellingsen, whom a tipster said had witnessed Pickton with the dead body of a Downtown Eastside sex worker in his barn one night.

Ellingsen told the detectives the story was untrue and one of the detectives, Frank Henley, believed Ellingsen, which caused the investigation to stall.

If the detectives had believed the informant’s information, more resources might have been assigned to the investigation and a joint forces operation formed sooner, Powell said.

Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder but once confessed he killed 49 women.

The remains or DNA of 33 of the missing women were found on Pickton’s farm in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

The inquiry, which began hearings last Oct. 11, is expected to conclude testimony by the end of the month.